The purpose of this research is to examine contributors to systematic differences in siblings in the degree to which their relationships with each other adaptively or maladaptively focused. Some siblings fight frequently while others develop good social relations. Siblings with normal and depressed mothers are compared. If a mother is depressed and less able to care for her children, some of the responsibility for caregiving and mediation of conflicts may fall to the older sibling. This would have implications for the psychosocial development of both the older and the younger sibling. Siblings are observed in interaction alone with each other, individually with the mother and together with the mother. The younger child is between the ages of two and three and the older child is between the ages of five and seven. Coding systems are currently being developed in which episodes of caregiving and conflict are identified and analyzed in relation to maternal psychopathology.